Communication apparatus and communication method, communication system, and computer program

ABSTRACT

A communication system includes a plurality of communication stations arranged to respectively transmit a beacon on which beacon time information related to a beacon received from a peripheral communication station is placed at a predetermined transmission interval and control a beacon transmission timing of its own station while a collision with the beacon transmitted from the peripheral communication station is avoided on the basis of beacon information placed on the received beacon, in which at least a part of the communication stations includes means configured to decide a priority with respect to beacons received from at least one peripheral communication station and means configured to place beacon time information of a beacon having a high priority among the received beacons on a beacon of its own station, and transmits the beacon at a predetermined transmission interval.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit under 35U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/591,025, titled“Communication Apparatus and Communication Method, Communication System,and Computer Program”, filed Jan. 7, 2015, which is a continuation ofand claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/542,538, titled “Communication Apparatus and CommunicationMethod, Communication System, and Computer Program”, filed Jul. 5, 2012,which is a continuation of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/405,295, titled “CommunicationApparatus and Communication Method, Communication System, and ComputerProgram”, filed Mar. 17, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,254,414, which claimsthe benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of Japanese Patent Application No. JP2008-069222 filed on Mar. 18, 2008, each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a communication apparatus and acommunication method, a communication system, and a computer program inwhich a communication is mutually performed among a plurality of radiostations such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) or a PAN (PersonalArea Network), in particular, a communication apparatus and acommunication method, a communication system, and a computer program inwhich a plurality of communication stations operating in an autonomousdistributed manner are connected in Peer to Peer.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a communicationapparatus and a communication method, a communication system, and acomputer program of a Peer to Peer style in which the communicationstations operating in an autonomous distributed manner mutually exchangebeacon frames to operate a communication, in particular, a communicationapparatus and a communication method, a communication system, and acomputer program of the Peer to Peer style in which beacon timinginformation received from an adjacent station is placed in the beaconframe to mitigate a beacon problem caused by a hidden terminal.

2. Description of the Related Art

As a system of liberating wires used in a wired communication system ina related art, a wireless network draws attention. For example, IEEE(The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11a,IEEE802.11b, or IEEE802.1g is typical as a wireless LAN standard. Withthe wireless LAN, a flexible internet connection can be established. Notonly the existing wired LAN is replaced, but also internet connectionmeans can be provided in public places such as a hotel, an airportlounge, a station, and a cafe. The wireless LAN has been already widelyspread, and a wireless LAN function is now being common to be mountednot only to an information device such as a personal computer (PC) butalso to a consumer electronics (CE) device such as a digital camera or amusic player.

In order to construct a LAN by using a wireless technology, a method isgenerally used of providing one apparatus functioning as a controlstation called “access point (AP)” or “coordinator” in an area andforming a network under an overall control of this control station. Thecontrol station performs a synchronized wireless communication in whichaccess timings of a plurality of terminal stations existing in thenetwork are adjusted, and the respective terminal stations are mutuallyoperated in synchronization.

In addition, as another method of constructing the wireless network, an“ad-hoc communication” is devised in which all the terminal stations areon an equal footing and operated in Peer to Peer in an autonomousdistributed manner, and the terminal stations decide the access timingsby themselves. In particular, for a small-sized wireless networkconstructed by a relatively small number of clients located close toeach other, the ad-hoc communication is regarded as an appropriatesystem in which arbitrary terminals mutually can directly perform anasynchronous wireless communication without utilizing a particularcontrol station.

For example, the networking in IEEE802.11 is based on a concept of BSS(Basic Service Set). The BSS is structured by two types including BSSdefined by an “infrastructure mode” where the control station exists andIBSS (Independent BSS) defined by an “ad-hoc mode” which is structuredby only a plurality of MTs (Mobile Terminal: mobile station or terminalstation).

Furthermore, other than the ad-hoc network regulated by IEEE802.11, acommunication system is developed in which the respective communicationstations operating in an autonomous distributed manner are connected inPeer to Peer. For example, a “multi-hop communication” in which aplurality of communication stations relay frames solves a problem thatall the communication parties are not particularly accommodated in arange where the radio waves reach. With the “multi-hop communication” inwhich the plurality of communication stations relay the frames, it ispossible to mutually connect a large number of communication stations.Currently, as a task group (TG) in IEEE802.11, a standardization of themulti-hop communication is in progress. In the present specification,the wireless network carrying out the multi-hop communication isreferred to as “mesh network”, and the respective communication stationsstructuring the mesh network are referred to as “mesh point (MP)”.

For example, a wireless communication system is proposed in which anetwork is structured while the respective communication stationstransmit beacons in which information related to the network isdescribed to each other, and a sophisticated determination is performedregarding a communication state at another communication station on thebasis of the beacon (for example, see WO2004/071022). By using a similarmethod, the mesh network can be structured.

FIG. 15 illustrates a communication sequence example in which a wirelesscommunication system in which a communication is performed in anautonomous distributed manner while the respective communicationstations exchange beacon signals. In the example shown in this drawing,as communication stations participating the network, two stations STA1and STA2 exist in a mutually communicable range. The respectivecommunication stations set respective TBTTs (Target Beacon TransmissionTime) and periodically transmit beacon signals. Then, as the respectivecommunication stations extract information of the adjacent MT, asoccasion demands, the communication station periodically receives thebeacon signals from the other communication station. It should be notedthat beacon transmission cycles are not regularly the same for all thecommunication stations, but herein, for simplicity of the description,the respective communication stations are supposed to transmit thebeacons in the same beacon transmission cycle.

Here, in a Peer to Peer communication system, a hidden terminal problemis generated in general. In a case where a communication is performedbetween particular communication stations, a hidden terminal refers to acommunication station which can hear from one communication stationfunctioning as a communication party, but the communication station isdifficult to hear from the other communication station. Negotiation isdifficult for the hidden terminals to perform, and transmissionoperations may collide with each other. With reference to FIGS. 16 to18, the beacon hidden terminal problem and a coping process thereof inthe Peer to Peer communication system where the communication is carriedout while the communication stations operating in an autonomousdistributed manner exchange the beacon signals will be examined.

FIGS. 16A to 16C exemplify a situation where the beacon hidden terminalproblem is generated in the Peer to Peer communication system.

In a situation shown in the left side of FIG. 16A, only onecommunication station STA0 exists. The right side of FIG. 16A shows asituation where the STA0 transmits the beacon at every 100 milliseconds.In the same drawing, B0 denotes a beacon signal transmitted by the STA0in a cycle of 100 milliseconds.

Subsequently, the left side of FIG. 16B shows a situation where a newcommunication station STA1 appears in a communication range of the STA0.In this case, as the STA1 can directly receive the beacon B0 of theSTA0, the STA1 appropriately find a timing during which a collision withthis beacon is not generated and sets the TBTT of its own station. Theright side of FIG. 16B shows a situation that as a beacon transmissiontime B1 of the STA1, just around a middle part of the beacontransmission cycle at 10 milliseconds of the STA0 is selected.

Furthermore, subsequently, the left side of FIG. 16B shows a situationwhere a STA2 (that is, which functions as a hidden terminal for the STA0appears at a location which is within the communication range of theSTA1 but no direct radio waves do not reach from the STA0. In this case,as the STA2 can directly receive the beacon B1 from the STA1, it ispossible to select a time at which the collision with this beacon is notgenerated for the beacon transmission time B2 of its own station.However, the STA2 does not know the existence of the beacon B0transmitted from the STA0 functioning as the hidden terminal, andtherefore the beacon may be transmitted at the same time as the STA0. Insuch a case, in the STA1, the beacons of the STA2 and the STA0 arecollided with each other, which leads to a significant problem for theoperation of the network.

For example, such a method is proposed that the respective communicationstations place the time information of the beacon received from anadjacent station on a beacon signal to notify each other (for example,see WO2004/071022). According to this method, the respectivecommunication stations analyze reception beacon time informationdescribed on the beacon received from the adjacent station to detect thebeacon transmission time of the hidden terminal, so that it is possibleto avoid the collision.

FIG. 17 shows a format example of a beacon frame. Although omitted inthe same drawing, in general, the beacon frame also includes a fieldindicating in which cycle the communication station which has receivedthe frame transmits the beacon (in the frame format, it should beunderstood that this is included as a part of Other Information).

Various formats are conceivable for the above-mentioned “timeinformation of the reception beacon”. The frame format example shown inFIG. 17 can be represented by “Time Stamp value” which is a timer valuefor performing a time management of its own station and “beacon timinginformation (Beacon Timing)”. The respective communication stationsactivate a timer for counting up a reference time of its own apparatusin its own apparatus, and a timer value at a moment when the frame istransmitted is placed as “Time Stamp” value in the beacon frame. Also,FIG. 18 shows a content of “beacon timing information”. In the beacontiming information shown in the drawing, an element ID is used as aheader, length information of the element follows, and after that,respective pieces of information “STA ID value”, “beacon receptiontime”, and “beacon interval” are placed for the number of receptionbeacons. For example, the communication station receiving beacons fromthe two communication station STA0 and STA1 describes three informationsets with respect to each of the STA0 and the STA1. Herein, “STA IDvalue” is a value for identifying a transmission source of the beacon.“Beacon reception time” is information indicating a reception time ofthe beacon, and a timer value of its own apparatus when the beacon isreceived is described. “Beacon interval” is a value indicating atransmission frequency of the beacon (a transmission cycle of the beaconframe at the transmission source of the beacon).

By placing the beacon timing information in the beacon frame, the beaconhidden terminal problem in the Peer to Peer communication system can besignificantly mitigated. In the example shown in FIG. 1C, the STA2receives the beacon from the STA1 to analyze the beacon timinginformation, so that it is possible to know “at what time in further theSTA1 will receive the beacon from the STA0 (hidden terminal)”. Thus, itis possible to set the beacon transmission time of its own station at atime when the hidden terminal beacon is not overlapped.

However, the solving method for the hidden terminal problem of placingthe beacon timing information in the beacon frame invites several newtechnical problems.

The first problem corresponds to a situation that in the format of the“beacon timing information” shown in FIG. 17 or 18, if the beacon timeinformation from a large number of peripheral communication station isplaced, the information amount to be placed on the beacon is large, andthe beacon frame becomes enormous.

For example, when “STA ID value” is represented by 1 octet, “beaconreception time” is represented by 2 octets, and “beacon interval” isrepresented by 2 octets, respectively, the size of the beacon timinginformation for one communication station becomes 5 octets. In thiscase, if the beacon timing information for 16 peripheral communicationstations is aimed to be placed, the total information amount of 80octets (=(1+2+2)×16) is used, and the size is difficult to ignore.

The second problem corresponds to a situation that when the beacontransmission cycles for the respective communication station are varied,it is difficult to determine as to the presence or absence of the beaconcollision. In the communication sequence example shown in FIG. 15, forsimplicity of the description, the beacon transmission cycles of thecommunication stations participating the network are all the same. Whenthe beacon transmission cycles of the respective communication stationsare the same or in a relation of integral multiple, it is easy todetermine whether or not the collision is continuously generated towardsthe future, but the network operation method is not limited to theabove. For example, in a case where one communication station transmitsthe beacon at 200 millisecond interval, and the other communicationstation transmits the beacon at 300 millisecond interval, the beaconcollision is intermittently generated, and a vague situation isgenerated. In this case, the determination is unclear as to regard thisevent as the collision or not.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is desirable toprovide a communication apparatus and a communication method, acommunication system, and a computer program which are excellent in thata plurality of communication stations operating in an autonomousdistributed manner can suitably establish a Peer to Peer connection.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, it isdesirable to provide a communication apparatus and a communicationmethod, a communication system, and a computer program of a Peer to Peerstyle which are excellent in that the communication stations operatingin an autonomous distributed manner mutually exchange beacon frames sothat a communication is suitably carried out.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, it isdesirable to provide a communication apparatus and a communicationmethod, a communication system, and a computer program of a Peer to Peerstyle which are excellent in that a beacon hidden terminal problem canbe mitigated by placing beacon timing information received from anadjacent station in a beacon frame.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, it isdesirable to provide a communication apparatus and a communicationmethod, a communication system, and a computer program of a Peer to Peerstyle which are excellent in that the respective communication stationsplace beacon time information received from a peripheral communicationstation in a beacon frame with still smaller information amount and cansuitably operate a network.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, it isdesirable to provide a communication apparatus and a communicationmethod, a communication system, and a computer program of a Peer to Peerstyle which are excellent in that the respective communication stationscan suitably operate a network while a collision of beacon frames isavoided under a communication environment where the beacon frames aremutually exchanged at uneven beacon transmission intervals.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentionedcircumstances, and according to an embodiment of the present invention,there is provided a communication system including a plurality ofcommunication stations arranged to respectively transmit a beacon onwhich beacon time information related to a beacon received from aperipheral communication station is placed at a predeterminedtransmission interval and control a beacon transmission timing of itsown station while a collision with the beacon transmitted from theperipheral communication station is avoided on the basis of beaconinformation placed on the received beacon, in which at least a part ofthe communication stations includes means configured to decide apriority with respect to beacons received from at least one peripheralcommunication station and means configured to place beacon timeinformation of a beacon having a high priority among the receivedbeacons on a beacon of its own station, and transmits the beacon at apredetermined transmission interval.

It should be noted that the “system” herein refers to a structure inwhich a plurality of apparatuses (or functional modules for realizing aparticular function) are logically aggregated, and whether therespective apparatuses or functional modules are in a single casing ornot does not particularly matter.

As a mode of the wireless network in which the respective communicationstations operating in an autonomous distributed manner establish a Peerto Peer connection, an ad-hoc mode where the respective terminalstations decide the access timing by themselves and further a meshnetwork in which a plurality of communication stations relay the framesto enable a multi-hop communication are proposed. In this type of thecommunication system, such an operation method is generally employedthat the respective communication stations exchange the beacon signalsto establish a connection in an autonomous distributed manner. Also, inorder to suppress the beacon collision between the communicationstations functioning as the hidden terminals, such a method is proposedthat the respective communication stations place the beacon timeinformation received from the peripheral communication station on thebeacon of its own station and analyze the content of the received beaconto control the beacon transmission timing of its own station so as notto be overlapped with the beacon transmission time of another station.

However, if the beacon time information from a large number ofperipheral communication stations is placed, there is a problem that theinformation amount to be placed on the beacon is large, and the beaconframe becomes enormous. Also, when the beacon transmission cycles forthe respective communication station are varied, there is a problem thatit is difficult to determine as to the presence or absence of the beaconcollision.

In contrast to this, in the communication system according to theembodiment of the present invention, the communication station decidesthe priority of the beacons received from one or more peripheralcommunication station and places the beacon time information of only thebeacon having the high priority among the received beacons on the beaconof its own station. Herein, the beacon having the high priority isequivalent to a beacon having a high urgency of notification to anadjacent station; for example, the reception state of the beacon ischanged. Therefore, the communication station places the timeinformation of beacon whose reception state is changed among the beaconsreceived from at least one peripheral communication station on thebeacon of its own station. In other words, even when the number of thebeacons received from the peripheral communication stations (the numberof the peripheral communication stations to which the beacons arrive) islarge, the respective communication stations omit the placement of thetime information of the beacon whose reception state is not fluctuatedon the beacon of its own station, so that it is possible to suppress theballooning of the beacon frame.

For example, the priority decision means set a high priority to a beaconwhose reception state is changed among the beacons received from atleast one peripheral communication station. Alternatively, the prioritydecision means set a high priority, among the beacons received from atleast one peripheral communication station, to a beacon whose receptioninterval is close to the beacon received from another communicationstation because a possibility that the collision may be generated ishigh due to the fluctuation in the beacon transmission timing, and anurgency of an action is considered to be high.

When the beacon timing information only of the reception beacon havingthe high priority is placed, there is a beacon which has been actuallyreceived but which is not placed on the “beacon timing information” inthe beacon frame. In view of the above, the beacon generation means mayplace information on the beacon indicating whether or not all thereception beacons placed on the current beacon timing information areall the beacons. Also, the communication station which has received thebeacon describing such information from peripheral communication stationanalyzes the reception beacon and detects that another reception beaconexists for the beacon transmission source. Furthermore, in a case whereit is determined that more pieces of beacon timing information thanthose placed on the reception beacon should be obtained by its ownstation, the hand shake operation for obtaining all the beacon timinginformation from the beacon transmission source may be performed.

Also, the communication station may place information whether or not thereception state of the beacon is changed on the beacon. The receptionbeacon change information is the information indicating the change inthe state of the reception beacon as long as being observed by its ownstation. For example, there is a role of notifying the peripheralstation of the change by using a 1-bit flag to indicate the change andplacing the information by changing a numeral value each time thereception beacon state is changed. The change in the reception state ofthe beacon described in the present specification includes disappearanceof the beacon which has been periodically received thus far, starting ofreception of a beacon which has not been observed thus far, change inthe transmission interval of the beacon which has been received thusfar, proximity in reception intervals of beacons received from differentperipheral communication stations, and the like.

Also, the communication station which has received the beacon describingthe information indicating the change in the state of the receptionbeacon from peripheral communication station may perform the hand shakeoperation for obtaining all the beacon timing information from thebeacon transmission source in a case where it is determined that it isdifficult to obtain sufficient information from the beacon timinginformation where the change is placed on the beacon.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a communication system including a plurality of communicationstations arranged to respectively transmit a beacon on which beacon timeinformation and a beacon transmission cycle related to a beacon receivedfrom a peripheral communication station are placed at a predeterminedtransmission interval and transmit the beacon in each beacontransmission cycle of its own station while a collision with the beacontransmitted from the peripheral communication station is avoided on thebasis of beacon information placed on the received beacon, in which atleast a part of the communication stations calculates a frequency ofpotentially generated beacon collisions on the basis of beacon timeinformation and a beacon transmission cycle of the peripheralcommunication station which has received the beacon by itself and beacontime information and a beacon transmission cycle related to theperipheral communication station described in the received beacon andperforms a processing for avoiding the beacon collisions in its ownstation and the peripheral communication station in accordance with thefrequency of the collisions.

As described above, when the beacon transmission cycles for therespective communication station are varied, there is a problem that itis difficult to determine as to the presence or absence of the beaconcollision, but in the communication system according to the embodimentof the present invention, when the communication station obtains thebeacon time information and the beacon transmission cycles of therespective peripheral communication stations on the basis of the beacontime information and the beacon transmission cycles obtained from thebeacon received by itself and the analysis result of the placed contentof the beacon, the frequency of the potentially generated beaconcollisions is calculated from the above-mentioned information. Then, theseriousness of the collisions is determined by using the frequency ofthe collisions as the reference, and the beacon transmission timing ofits own station is changed. Furthermore, by requesting the change in thebeacon transmission timing to the peripheral communication station wherethe collision becomes serious, the beacon hidden terminal problem isaimed to be solved.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a computer-readable computer program for executing a processingon a computer to operate as a communication station under acommunication environment where the respective communication stationsoperating in an autonomous distributed manner establish a Peer to Peerconnection, the program allowing the computer to function as: receptionmeans configured to receive a frame including a beacon from a peripheralcommunication station; beacon analysis means configured to analyze thebeacon received by the reception means; priority decision meansconfigured to decide a priority with respect to the respective beaconsreceived from the peripheral communication station by the receptionmeans; beacon generation means configured to generate a beacon on whichbeacon timing information related to a reception time of a beacon havinga high priority among the beacons received from the peripheralcommunication station is placed; transmission means configured totransmit a frame including the beacon generated by the beacon generationmeans; control means configured to control frame transmission andreception operations performed by the transmission means and thereception means; and timing control means configured to control frametransmission and reception timings including a beacon transmissiontiming of its own station while a collision with the beacon transmittedfrom the peripheral communication station is avoided on the basis ofbeacon timing information of the peripheral communication stationobtained from a result of the beacon analysis performed by the beaconanalysis means.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided a computer-readable computer program for executing a processingon a computer to operate as a communication station under acommunication environment where the respective communication stationsoperating in an autonomous distributed manner establish a Peer to Peerconnection, the program allowing the computer to function as: receptionmeans configured to receive a frame including a beacon from a peripheralcommunication station; beacon analysis means configured to analyze thebeacon received by the reception means; beacon generation meansconfigured to generate a beacon on which beacon time information relatedto the respective beacons received from the peripheral communicationstation and beacon timing information including a beacon transmissioncycle are placed; transmission means configured to transmit a frameincluding the beacon generated by the beacon generation means; controlmeans configured to control frame transmission and reception operationsperformed by the transmission means and the reception means; and timingcontrol means configured to control frame transmission and receptiontimings including a beacon transmission timing of its own station whilea collision with the beacon transmitted from the peripheralcommunication station is avoided on the basis of beacon timinginformation of the peripheral communication station obtained from aresult of the beacon analysis performed by the beacon analysis means, inwhich the control means calculates a frequency of potentially generatedbeacon collisions on the basis of beacon time information and a beacontransmission cycle of the peripheral communication station which hasreceived the beacon by itself and beacon time information and a beacontransmission cycle related to the peripheral communication stationdescribed in the received beacon and performs a processing for avoidingthe beacon collisions in its own station and the peripheralcommunication station in accordance with the frequency of thecollisions.

The computer program according to the embodiment of the presentinvention defines a computer program described in a computer readableformat for realizing a predetermined processing on the computer system.In other words, by installing the computer program according to theembodiment of the present invention into the computer, a cooperativeaction is realized on the computer, and the computer is operated as thecommunication station in an autonomous distributed manner. Byconstructing the wireless network by activating a plurality of suchcommunication stations, a similar action effect to the communicationsystem according to the embodiment of the present invention can beobtained.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible toprovide the communication apparatus and the communication method, thecommunication system, and the computer program which are excellent inthat the plurality of communication stations operating in an autonomousdistributed manner can suitably establish the Peer to Peer connection.

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it ispossible to provide the communication apparatus and the communicationmethod, the communication system, and the computer program of the Peerto Peer style which are excellent in that the communication stationsoperating in an autonomous distributed manner mutually exchange thebeacon frames so that the communication is suitably carried out.

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it ispossible to provide the communication apparatus and the communicationmethod, the communication system, and the computer program of the Peerto Peer style which are excellent in that the beacon hidden terminalproblem can be mitigated by placing the beacon timing informationreceived from the adjacent station in the beacon frame.

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it ispossible to provide the communication apparatus and the communicationmethod, the communication system, and the computer program of the Peerto Peer style which are excellent in that the respective communicationstations place the beacon time information received from the peripheralcommunication station in the beacon frame with the still smallerinformation amount and can suitably operate the network.

Also, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it ispossible to provide the communication apparatus and the communicationmethod, the communication system, and the computer program of the Peerto Peer style which are excellent in that the respective communicationstations can suitably operate the network while the collision of thebeacon frames is avoided under the communication environment where thebeacon frames are mutually exchanged at the uneven beacon transmissionintervals.

Further features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments withreference to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a hardware configuration example of awireless apparatus capable of being connected to another station in Peerto Peer by performing a communication operation in an autonomousdistributed manner as a communication station in a wireless networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of another hardware configuration example ofa wireless apparatus capable of being connected to another station inPeer to Peer by performing a communication operation in an autonomousdistributed manner as the communication station in a wireless networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an internal configuration example of a wirelessinterface unit;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for describing a management method forbeacon reception information performed in the communication station;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for describing a setting method for apriority of a reception beacon;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for describing the setting method forthe priority of the reception beacon;

FIG. 7 illustrates a format example of a beacon frame in a case wherebeacon timing information is placed only on the reception beacon havinga high priority;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for describing a method for thecommunication station to determine whether a change in a reception stateof the beacon is generated;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for describing a setting method for thereception beacon change information composed of numeral values;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for describing a solving method for abeacon hidden terminal problem in a case where the beacon transmissioncycles of the respective communication stations are not constant;

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram for describing a solving method forthe beacon hidden terminal problem in a case where the beacontransmission cycles of the respective communication stations are notconstant;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing a processing procedure for thecommunication station to determine whether or not beacons collide witheach other of the respective adjacent stations which send the beacons indifferent transmission cycles;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing a processing procedure for theperipheral communication station to change a beacon transmission timingwhen it is determined that the beacons are collided between theperipheral communication stations;

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram for describing a method for thecommunication station to decide the beacon transmission timing;

FIG. 15 illustrates a communication sequence example in a wirelesscommunication system in which a communication is performed in anautonomous distributed manner while the respective communicationstations exchange the beacon signals;

FIG. 16A exemplifies a situation where the beacon hidden terminalproblem is generated in a Peer to Peer communication system;

FIG. 16B exemplifies a situation where the beacon hidden terminalproblem is generated in the Peer to Peer communication system;

FIG. 16C exemplifies a situation where the beacon hidden terminalproblem is generated in the Peer to Peer communication system;

FIG. 17 illustrates a format example of a beacon frame; and

FIG. 18 illustrates a content of the beacon timing information.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail with reference to the drawings.

According to the embodiments described below, a propagation channel fora communication is supposed to be wireless, and also a network isconstructed between a plurality of devices by using single transmissionmedium (corresponding to a case in which a link is not separated by afrequency channel). It should be noted that even in a case where aplurality of frequency channels exist as transmission media, the sameapplies. Also, according to the embodiments, the communication issupposed to be traffic of a store-and-forward type, and information istransferred in units of packets. Also, a processing in the respectivecommunication stations described below is basically a processingexecuted in all the communication stations participating the network. Itshould be noted that depending on a case, some communication stationsstructuring the network do not execute the processing described below ona regular basis.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a hardware configuration example of awireless apparatus capable of being connected to another station in Peerto Peer by performing a communication operation in an autonomousdistributed manner as a communication station in a wireless networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The wirelessapparatus is an information device on which a wireless LAN card ismounted such as a personal computer or a CE device such as a digitalcamera or a music player.

In the wireless apparatus shown in the drawing, a CPU (CentralProcessing Unit) 1 is mutually connected via a bus to memory apparatusessuch as a ROM (Read Only Memory) 2 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 3, aperipheral apparatus 4, an external storage apparatus 5 such as an HDD(Hard Disk Drive), and a peripheral apparatus such as a wireless LANinterface unit 6. Also, two or more buses are linked via a bridgeapparatus.

The CPU 1 loads a control code stored in the ROM 2 or a program codeinstalled into the external storage apparatus 5 onto the RAM 3 andexecutes the code to perform an overall control on the entire apparatussuch as an apparatus operation using the peripheral apparatus 4 (forexample, an image pickup operation and an image reproduction operationin the digital camera and a play list display and a music reproductionoperation in the music player) and a communication operation using thewireless LAN interface unit 6.

In the example of FIG. 1, the wireless LAN interface unit 6 transfers aframe in a MAC (Media Access Control) layer of IEEE802 via the bus tothe RAM 3, and the CPU 1 performs a processing in the MAC layer. Itshould be noted that the gist of the present invention is not limited tothe configuration of the wireless apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1, andanother configuration illustrated in FIG. 2 is also conceivable. In FIG.2, the wireless LAN interface unit 6 is connected to the bus via an I/Ointerface 7. The I/O interface 7 connecting the wireless LAN interfaceunit 6 and the bus is generally an MSIO (Memory Stick IO), an SDIO(Secure Digital IO), a USB (Universal Serial Bus), or the like. Thewireless interface unit 6 performs a processing in the MAC (Media AccessControl) layer of IEEE802.11 and transmits a frame equivalent toIEEE802.3 through the I/O interface 7 to the host CPU 1.

As the wireless interface unit 6 is mounted on the information deviceillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, for example, the information device canfunction as a terminal station (Mobile terminal: MT) operating on thead-hoc network or a mesh point (Mesh Point: MP) operating on the meshnetwork. Also, the information device illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 issupposed to be of a battery drive system in which drive electric poweris supplied from a battery (not shown) and is provided with a chargerfor charging the battery. The information device may control a chargingoperation based on the charger by calculating the remaining power froman output terminal voltage of the battery or the like.

FIG. 3 illustrates an internal configuration example of the wirelessinterface unit 6. The wireless interface unit 6 shown in the drawing isoperated as the communication station under a communication environmentof an autonomous distributed type where the control station is notarranged. By effectively performing a channel access in the samewireless system, it is possible to form a network while the collision isavoided.

As illustrated in the drawing, the wireless interface unit 6 functioningas the communication station is composed of a host interface unit 101, adata buffer 102, a central control unit 103, a beacon generation unit104, a radio transmission unit 106, a timing control unit 107, a antenna109, a radio reception unit 110, the beacon analysis unit 112, and aninformation storage unit 113.

The host interface unit 101 performs exchange of various pieces ofinformation with the host device (see FIG. 1 or 2) which is connected tothe I/O interface 7.

The data buffer 102 is used for temporarily storing the data transmittedfrom the host device connected via the host interface unit 101 or thedata received via the wireless transmission channel before beingtransmitted via the host interface unit 101.

The central control unit 103 executes a predetermined execution commandprogram to perform a management of a series of information transmissionand reception processings in the wireless interface unit 6 functioningas the communication station and the access control of the transmissionchannel in an integrated manner.

According to the present embodiment, the central control unit 103executes a processing for realizing the access control and the like inthe autonomous distributed type network such as the ad-hoc network orthe mesh network. Also, the access control described herein includes aprocessing such as a control on the beacon transmission timing of itsown station on the basis of the beacon time information of theperipheral communication station which is placed on the beacon. A detailof these processings will be described below.

The beacon generation unit 104 generates the beacon signal which isperiodically exchanged with the nearby communication station. In orderfor the wireless apparatus provided with the wireless interface unit 6to operate the wireless network, its own beacon transmission position,the beacon reception position from the adjacent station, and the likeare regulated. These pieces of beacon time information are stored in theinformation storage unit 113 and also placed in the beacon signal tonotify the adjacent communication station. As the respectivecommunication stations transmit the beacon at the beginning of thetransmission frame cycle, the transmission frame cycle in the channel isdefined by the beacon interval. It should be noted that a detail of themethod for placing the beacon time information of the peripheralcommunication station in the beacon signal will be described below.

The radio transmission unit 106 performs a predetermined modulationprocessing for wirelessly transmitting the data temporarily stored inthe data buffer 102 or the beacon signal. Also, the radio reception unit110 performs a reception processing on the information transmitted fromanother station at a predetermined time or the signal such as thebeacon.

For the wireless transmission and reception method in the radiotransmission unit 106 and the radio reception unit 110, for example, itis possible to apply various communication methods which are suitablefor a communication in a relatively short distance applicable to thewireless LAN. To be more specific, a UWB (Ultra Wide Band) method, anOFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method, a CDMA (CodeDivision Multiple Access) method, and the like can be adopted.

The antenna 109 wirelessly transmits the signal to another communicationstation on a predetermined frequency channel or collects a signalarriving from another communication station. According to the presentembodiment, a signal antenna used by the transmission and receptiondevices is provided, but the transmission and the reception are notsimultaneously performed in parallel.

The timing control unit 107 performs a control on the timings fortransmitting and receiving the radio signals. For example, its ownbeacon transmission timing at the beginning of the transmission framecycle, the beacon reception timing from the adjacent station, the datatransmission and reception timings with the adjacent station, the scanoperation cycle, and the like are controlled.

The beacon analysis unit 112 analyzes the beacon signal which can bereceived from the adjacent station and also analyzes the existence ofthe peripheral communication station including the hidden terminal orthe like. For example, the beacon timing information of the adjacentstation such as the TBTT which is extracted from the beacon signal isstored in the information storage unit 113 as the peripheralcommunication station information.

The information storage unit 113 accumulates the execution procedurecommand (program describing the collision avoiding processing procedureand the like) such as a series of the access control operations executedin the central control unit 103, the peripheral communication stationinformation obtained from the analysis result of the reception beacon,and the like.

According to the present embodiment, the wireless apparatus providedwith the wireless interface unit 6 is operated as the communicationstation (the terminal station (MT) or the mesh point (MP)) participatingthe autonomous distributed type network such as the ad-hoc network orthe mesh network. In the above-mentioned autonomous distributed typenetwork, the hidden terminal problem is generated when the beacon isexchanged between the communication stations. According to the presentembodiment, such a feature is provided that the respective communicationstations mutually notify the beacon time information to be used whilesuppressing the information amount irrespective of the increase in thenumber of the peripheral communication stations, and even in a casewhere the respective communication stations are operated in differentbeacon cycles, the generation of the collision can be suppressed. To bemore specific, without the fluctuation in the reception state, regardingthe beacon time information, by omitting the placement on the beacon ofits own station, the ballooning of the beacon frame suppressed. Also, ina case where the respective terminals perform the beacon operation invarious beacon cycles, a measure is taken in accordance with theseriousness of the collisions while the collision of the beacons isdetermined by using the frequency of the collisions supposed to begenerated in future as the reference. Hereinafter, these processingoperations will be described below.

First, a management method for the beacon reception informationperformed by the communication station will be described with referenceto FIG. 4.

The respective communication stations perform the autonomousdistribution operation while exchanging the beacon. However, if all theinformation related to the reception beacon is placed, the beaconbecomes enormous. Therefore, such an approach is adopted that a priorityis assigned to the record of the reception beacon, and only the recordwith the high priority is placed on the transmission beacon from its ownstation. In the example shown in FIG. 4, as the peripheral communicationstation information, the records of the beacon timing informationrespectively received from six peripheral communication stations STA0 toSTA5 are held in the information storage unit 113. Among them, only fourrecords having the high priority (the records of the beacon timinginformation regarding the STA0, the STA3, the STA5, and the STA2) areextracted and placed on the transmission beacon. The method of assigningthe priority of the reception beacon will be described below. Also, thecommunication station previously determines the number of records whichcan be placed on the transmission beacon and sorts out the receptionbeacons in order of priority. After that, only the predetermined numberof records may be placed in some cases, or without determining thenumber of records, only the records having the high priority may beextracted from the peripheral communication station information andplaced on the beacon of its own station.

The beacon having the high priority is equivalent to the beacon having ahigh urgency to be notified to the adjacent station such as the beaconwhose reception state is changed. By only placing the beacon informationwith the high priority among the received beacon information as the“beacon timing information” as described above, the notification on thebeacon information with the high urgency is guaranteed.

Subsequently, the setting method for the priority of the receptionbeacon will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIG. 5 illustrates a communication sequence example in which the beaconof the STA0 is not observed at the beginning, but the beacon is startedto be received with the beacon at a time B0-1. It should be noted thatin the same drawing, the highlighted beacons are the reception beacons,and the other beacons are the beacons which are not received.

The communication station receiving the beacon at the time B0-1 analyzesthe beacon information, and it is found out that the STA0 alsotransmitted the beacon at a time B0-0, but this beacon is not receiveddue to some reason. Therefore, the beacon received at the time B0-1 isdetermined as the beacon newly received, and because the fluctuation inthe state of the reception beacon is caused, such a processing isperformed that this record is assigned with the high priority anddescribed in the “beacon timing information” with the high priority.

FIG. 5 illustrates the example in which the beacon which has not beenreceived thus far is started to be received. In contrast to the above,in a case where it becomes clear that the “interval of beacontransmission is changed although the beacon has been received thus far”,for example, the fluctuation in the state of the reception beacon iscaused, and the processing is performed that this record is assignedwith the high priority, and described in the “beacon timing information”with the high priority.

Also, as another example of the beacon having the high priority, abeacon whose reception interval is close to the reception beacon fromanother communication station can be represented. FIG. 6 illustrates acommunication sequence example in which the beacons respectivelytransmitted from the three communication stations the STA0, the STA1,and the STA2 in the same cycle are periodically received. It should benoted that in the same drawing, highlighted beacons are the beaconshaving the high priority, and the other beacons are the beacons havingthe low priority. That is, B0-0, B0-1, and B0-2 represent beaconsreceived from the STA0, B1-0, B1-1, and B1-2 represent beacons receivedfrom the STA1, and B2-0, B2-1, B2-2 represent beacons received from theSTA2, respectively.

At this time, as an interval between the beacon frames transmitted fromthe STA0 and the STA1 is below a certain threshold, and it is determinedthat the interval between the frames is small. The small intervalbetween the frames means that the frames may be collided when thetimings are slightly deviated. In view of the above, in thecommunication station which receives the beacons from both the STA0 andthe STA1, it is determined that the beacons may be collided with eachother at risk, and the records are assigned with the high priority toperform the processing of placing the beacon in the “beacon timinginformation” with the high priority.

Subsequently, as described above, a format example of a beacon frame forplacing the beacon timing information only on the reception beaconhaving the high priority will be described with reference to FIG. 7.

When the beacon timing information only of the reception beacon havingthe high priority is placed, the beacon which has been actually receivedbut is not placed on the “beacon timing information” in the beacon frameexists. For this reason, the communication station may notify theperipheral stations in some cases that the “beacon periodically receivedexists in addition to the beacon placed on the beacon frame”. In view ofthe above, in the format example of the beacon frame shown in FIG. 7, inthe field of the “beacon timing information”, a field called “morebeacon info” for indicating that another reception beacon exists isprepared. By using this field, it is indicated whether or not thereception beacons placed on the current beacon timing information areall the beacons.

Also, when the communication station receives the beacon from theperipheral station, the “beacon timing information” in the receptionbeacon the more beacon info field is checked. Then, in a case where itis determined that more pieces of the beacon timing information thanthose placed on the reception beacon should be obtained, the requestframe for requesting a notification on all the pieces of beacon timinginformation is transmitted to the beacon transmission source station insome cases. A hand shake in performed in such a manner that thecommunication station receiving this request frame generates the “beacontiming information” by using the information including all the beaconsrecently received irrespective of the priority and places thisinformation in the response frame to reply for responding to therequest. Through the above-mentioned hand shake, the communicationstation can obtain all the beacon timing information received by theperipheral station from the received response frame.

It should be noted that according to the embodiment in which the morebeacon info field shown in FIG. 7 is utilized, there may be such a casethat none of the records of the reception beacon time placed in thebeacon frame in a related art is placed. This is because the situationis equivalent to the above-mentioned case where the “number of recordswhich can be placed on predetermined transmission beacon” is zero, butthrough the hand shake of the frame response with the above-mentionedrequest frame, the actual beacon reception time is notified.

Also, in the format example of the beacon frame shown in FIG. 7, as the“beacon timing information” in the beacon frame, in addition to the“more beacon info” filed for indicating that the reception beacon otherthan those placed exists, a field called “beacon update info” forindicating that the beacon reception state is changed is prepared. Thereception beacon change information is the information indicating thechange in the state of the reception beacon as long as being observed byits own station. For example, there is a role of notifying theperipheral station of the change by using a 1-bit flag to indicate thechange and placing the information by changing a numeral value each timethe reception beacon state is changed.

In such a case, the communication station checks the beacon update infofield in the “beacon timing information” of in the beacon received fromthe peripheral communication station. Then, it is confirmed that thebeacon reception state is changed, but in a case where it is determinedthat sufficient information is difficult to be obtained from the beacontiming information where the change is placed on the beacon, a requestframe for requesting a notification on all the received beacon timinginformation is transmitted to the beacon transmission source station insome cases. The hand shake in performed in such a manner that thecommunication station receiving this request frame generates the “beacontiming information” by using the information including all the beaconsrecently received irrespective of the priority and places thisinformation in the response frame to reply for responding to therequest. Then, the communication station can obtain all the beacontiming information received in the peripheral communication station byreceiving the above-mentioned response frame.

It should be noted that according to the embodiment in which the morebeacon info field shown in FIG. 7 is utilized, there may be such a casethat none of the records of the reception beacon time placed in thebeacon frame in a related art is placed. This is because the situationis equivalent to the above-mentioned case where the “number of recordswhich can be placed on predetermined transmission beacon” is zero, butthrough the hand shake of the frame response with the above-mentionedrequest frame, the actual beacon reception time is notified.

Subsequently, a method for the communication station to determinewhether or not the reception state of the beacon is changed will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 5 and 8. It should be noted that inthe respective drawings, the highlighted beacons are the receptionbeacons, and the other beacons are the beacons which are not received.

FIG. 8 illustrates a communication sequence example in which the beaconwhich has been received form the STA1 thus far is not received. Thecommunication station periodically receives the beacon at B1-0 and B1-1from the STA1. However, the communication station does not receive thebeacon supposed to be received next at a time around B1-2. Therefore,the communication station determines that this beacon disappears andthat the beacon reception state is changed, and checks the beacon updateinfo field.

FIG. 5 illustrates the communication sequence example in which thebeacon of the STA0 is not observed at the beginning, but the beacon isstarted to be received with the beacon at the time B0-1 (as describedabove). On the basis of the above-mentioned logic, the communicationstation determines this beacon is a beacon started to be newly receivedand that the change in the state of the reception beacon is caused, andchecks the beacon update info field.

It should be noted that although not shown in the drawing, also in acase where the beacon has been received from the same peripheralcommunication station thus far but it becomes clear that the interval ofthe beacon transmission is changed from this time, the communicationstation regards that the change in the state of the reception beacon iscaused.

Also, as already described with reference to FIG. 6, the information asto whether or not the time interval between the beacons transmitted fromthe different peripheral communication stations is below a certainthreshold becomes important information for predicting the beaconcollision in advance. For example, a possibility of the generation ofthe beacon collision is high in such a situation that the receptioninterval between the beacons is above the threshold thus far with alarge margin, but the reception interval becomes below the threshold ata certain time point. Therefore, in the above-mentioned situation, it isregarded that the change in the state of the reception beacon is causedto check the beacon update info field. In contrast to the above, whenthe reception interval between the beacons from the different peripheralcommunication stations is below the threshold thus far, but thereception interval becomes above the threshold at a certain time point,it is also regarded that the change in the state of the reception beaconis caused.

In a case where the reception beacon change information is composed of 1bit, when the reception beacon is changed as shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 8,the change is notified by setting 1 in the bit field of the beaconupdate info in the transmission beacon of its own station. In order tonotify the peripheral communication station that the reception state ofthe beacon is changed, such a method is effective of transmitting notonly the beacon immediately after detecting the change in the beaconreception state but also the beacon in which 1 is set in the field forseveral frames thereafter (the beacon transmission cycles).

However, in a case where the reception beacon change information iscomposed of 1 bit, the bit field of the beacon update info is not setcontinuously thereafter, and when a normal state is established, 0 isset. In this case, if the peripheral station does not accidentallyreceive the “beacon frame in which 1 is set”, there is a problem thatthe peripheral station misses the generation of the change. In order tosolve this problem, instead of using the 1-bit flag, the receptionbeacon change information may be composed of a numeric value such as acounter value. The numeric value is changed each time the receptionbeacon state is changed (count up). A setting example for the receptionbeacon change information in this case will be described.

FIG. 9 illustrates a communication sequence example in which thecommunication station STA2 receives the beacons from the twocommunication stations the STA0 and the STA1. It should be noted that inthe same drawing, the highlighted beacons are the reception beacons, andthe other beacons are the beacons which are not received.

At the beginning, the communication station STA2 receives only thebeacon from the STA1 and places 0x00 as a value for the reception beaconchange information. After that, as the communication station STA2receives the B0-1 from the STA0 (which has not been received thus far),it is regarded that the reception beacon state is changed. In responseto this situation, the communication station STA2 changes the value ofthe reception beacon change information to 0x01 to be placed on thebeacon of its own station.

The peripheral communication station existing in the reaching range ofthe beacon from the STA2 holds the value (0x00) of the reception beaconchange information which has been used by the communication station STA2thus far. By comparing the held value with a value (0x01) of thereception beacon change information which is described on the newlyreceived beacon, it is possible to detect the change in the receptionstate of the beacon in the STA2. The peripheral communication station ofthe STA2 holds the value of the reception beacon change information as0x01 while the scheduled beacon reception is performed.

After that, the STA2 does not receive the beacon B1-2 from the STA1which is expected to be received. Therefore, in response to thesituation, the STA2 changes the value of the reception beacon changeinformation again to 0x02 to be placed on the beacon of its own station.Through a similar procedure to the above, the peripheral communicationstation of the STA2 can detect the change in the reception state of thebeacon again in the communication station STA2.

It should be noted that in the example shown in FIG. 8, if the beaconfrom the peripheral communication station is not received at thescheduled time, it is immediately determined that the reception state ofthe beacon is changed. However, although the beacon signal from theperipheral communication station is transmitted at a correct timing, anerror is caused in the beacon signal by accident, and the beacon signalis not properly received, for example. Thus, such a case is plausiblethat the reception state of the beacon is not actually changed. Thetransmission signal error is a typically generated phenomenon inparticular in the wireless communication environment. In view of theabove, when the change in the reception state of the beacon from theperipheral communication station is determined, the communicationstation may apply a filtering algorithm not to erroneously determine theaccidental error of the beacon signal as the change in the beaconreception state.

For example, the communication station may determine that the beaconreception state is changed only when the scheduled beacon reception fromthe peripheral communication station is not received continuously for apredetermined time, not once. Alternatively, may determine that thebeacon reception state is changed only when the scheduled beaconreception from the peripheral communication station is not received Ntimes out of M times from the immediate beacon reception scheduled time(it should be noted that M and N are positive integers, and M≥N isestablished).

In the above, for convenience, the description has been given on thepremise that the respective communication stations transmit the beaconsin the same cycle. However, depending on a system, there are cases inwhich the respective communication stations transmit the beacons in thedifferent cycles. In the following description, a description will begiven of a method of solving the beacon hidden terminal problem in acase where the beacon transmission cycles of the respectivecommunication stations are not constant.

FIG. 10 illustrates a communication sequence example in which aplurality of communication stations transmit the beacons in differentcycles. In the same drawing, the STA0 which transmits beacons at aninterval of 300 milliseconds and the STA1 which transmits beacons at aninterval of 200 milliseconds with the STA2 exist as the adjacentstations, and the beacons transmitted from the STA0 and the STA1periodically collide with each other once in several times.

The communication station STA2 which receives the beacons transmittedfrom the STA0 and the STA1 can easily calculate at what time the beacontransmission is scheduled afterwards on the basis of the respectivebeacon reception times and beacon transmission intervals. Also, even inthe case of the communication station which is not the directly adjacentstation for the STA2, if the station is the directly adjacent stationfor the STA0 or the STA1, the beacon timing information is described onthe beacon from the STA0 or the STA1. Therefore, similarly, for thecommunication station which is not the directly adjacent station, theSTA2 can easily calculate at what time the beacon transmission isscheduled in future on the basis of a relative reception time (Beacon RxTime) described as beacon timing information in the beacons respectivelyreceived from the STA0 and the STA1 and a beacon interval (see FIG. 7).

The STA2 calculates the frequency of the potentially generated beaconcollisions from the beacon time information and the beacon transmissioncycles received from the STA0 and the STA1. Then, the seriousness of thecollisions is determined by using the frequency of the collisions as thereference.

Also, FIG. 11 illustrates another communication sequence example inwhich the beacons are transmitted from the STA0 and the STA1 indifferent transmission cycles. Similarly to the above, the STA0 and theSTA2 which transmit the beacon at an interval of 300 milliseconds, andthe STA1 which transmits the beacon at an interval of 200 millisecondsexist as adjacent stations. The STA2 calculates the frequency of thepotentially generated beacon collisions from the beacon time informationand the beacon transmission cycles received from the STA0 and the STA1to determine whether or not the collision is serious. In the exampleshown in the drawing, as the number of collisions between thetransmission beacons of the STA0 and the STA1 generated until a certaintime in future is 0, the value if below the threshold, and it isdetermined that the beacons of the stations are not collided with eachother.

It should be noted that in the example shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, it issupposed that the STA0 and the STA1 are both the adjacent stations ofthe STA2, and the STA0 and the STA1 are the hidden terminals, but ofcourse, the gist of the present invention is not limited to the above.For example, even when the STA0 is not the adjacent station of the STA2,but if the STA0 is the adjacent station of the STA1 and the STA1 isnotified of the beacon transmission time of the STA0 or the like via thebeacon timing information, the STA2 can calculate the beacontransmission time of the STA0 from this information. Similarly to theabove, it is possible to calculate a frequency of the beacon collisionsto be generated in future.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a processing procedure for the communicationstation to determine whether or not there is a collision between beaconsof the respective adjacent stations which transmit the beacons indifferent transmission cycles. In the following description, thefollowing case is exemplified for the description that the STA2 havingthe STA0 and the STA1 as both the directly adjacent stations determineswhether or not there is a collision regarding the reception beacon ofits own station.

The STA2 roughly calculates the beacon transmission times afterwardsscheduled by the adjacent stations STA0 and STA1, and its own stationSTA2 until a time T1 in future (step S1).

Then, during this period, the number of transmitted beacons is counted,and this value is set as N1 (step S2). Herein, the time T1 is set as asufficiently large value so that N1 takes a plural number.

Furthermore, the STA2 counts the number of collision times with thebeacon from the other station among the beacon transmission count N1,and this value is set as N2 (step S3).

Then, the STA2 compares N2 with the number of beacons N1 transmitted bythe adjacent stations STA0 and STA1 (step S4). Then, when a ratio of thenumber of collisions N2 exceeds a certain pre-set threshold (Yes in stepS4), it is determined that the beacons from the stations are collidedwith each other (step S5). When the ratio is equal to or lower than thethreshold (No in step S4), it is determined that the beacons are notcollided with each other (step S6).

Herein, as an example of the threshold, about 1/10 is preferable. Whenabout one collision occurs among ten beacon transmissions, thissituation is considered to be in a permissible range, and it isdetermined that the beacons are not collided with each other.

The above-mentioned calculation method for the reception beaconcollision determination will be described more definitely. First, N1(the count value of the beacons transmitted until the time T1) in stepS2 is calculated through the following expression. It should be notedthat N represents the number of adjacent stations, i indicates an indexrepresenting the communication station, i=0 is for its own station, and0<i≤N is for the adjacent station.

Numeric  Expression  1 $\begin{matrix}{{N\; 1} = {\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{N}\;{{Count}\left\lbrack {f_{i}(t)} \right\rbrack}}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

The count function is a function for counting the number of rising edgesof the function given as an argument, which is represented as follows.

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 2} & \; \\{{{{Count}\left\lbrack {\delta(t)} \right\rbrack} = 1},{{{Count}\left\lbrack {\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{2}\;{\delta\left( {t - k} \right)}} \right\rbrack} = 3}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

The function f_(i)(t) is an impulse function where only the beacontransmission timing has a value from the current time to an upcomingtime t1, which is represented through the following expression.

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 3} & \; \\{{f_{i}(t)} = {\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{\infty}\;{{\delta\left( {t - {k \times {BcnInt}_{i}} - {t\; 0_{i}}} \right)} \times {{Window}(t)}}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

δ(x) is a delta function having a value only when x=0, and the followingexpression is established.Numeric Expression 4∫_(−∞) ^(+∞) A(x)δ(x)=A(0)  (4)Also, BcInt_(i) denotes a beacon cycle of the communication station i,and t0 _(i) denotes the previous beacon reception time of thecommunication station i. A window function Window (t) is representedthrough the following expression (it should be noted that T0 denotes thecurrent time, and T1 denotes a future time of the calculation target).

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 5} & \; \\{{{Window}(t)} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}1 & {{T\; 0} < t < {T\; 1}} \\0 & {otherwise}\end{matrix} \right.} & (5)\end{matrix}$

Also, N2 (the count value of the number of collisions with the beaconsfrom the other station transmitted until the time T1) in step S3 in FIG.12 is given through the following expression.

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 6} & \; \\{{N\; 2} = {\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{N - 1}\;{\sum\limits_{j = {i + 1}}^{N}\;{{Count}\left\lbrack {\left( {{f_{i}(t)} \otimes {{Gate}(t)}} \right) \times \left( {{f_{j}(t)} \otimes {{Gate}(t)}} \right)} \right\rbrack}}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

Herein, an operation symbol connecting the impulse function f_(i)(t) anda gate function Gate (t) means a convolution multiplication. The gatefunction Gate (t) is given through the following expression. Also,BT_(max) denotes a value obtained by adding a margin to the expectedmaximum beacon frame time length. When a difference between the beacontransmission timings of the communication stations is equal to or lowerthan BT_(max), it is possible to determine that the beacon frametransmitted at the beacon transmission timing may be collided.

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 7} & \; \\{{{Gate}(t)} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}1 & {0 < t < {BT}_{\max}} \\0 & {otherwise}\end{matrix} \right.} & (7)\end{matrix}$

In the processing procedure shown in FIG. 12, when it is determined thatthe collision is serious, in order to overcome such a situation, theSTA2 performs the hand shape for requesting the change in the beacontransmission timing to at least one of the STA0 and the STA1. With thisconfiguration, it is possible to solve the beacon hidden terminalproblem.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of the processing procedure for thecommunication station (the STA2) to request the peripheral communicationstation (the STA1) for the change in the beacon transmission timing whenit is determined that the beacons are collided between the peripheralcommunication stations. It should be noted that the beacon transmissiontimes of the peripheral communications stations STA0 and STA1 areassumed to have the relation shown in FIG. 10 at the beginning.

First, on the basis of the beacon reception times and the beacontransmission intervals from the STA0 and the STA1, respectively, theSTA2 calculates whether or not a collision beacon exists in thereception of its own station and further determines the seriousness ofthe collisions in accordance with the beacon collision frequency (stepS11) (see FIG. 12).

Herein, as the collision frequency exceeds the threshold, the STA2determines that the beacon collision is periodically generated. The STA2issues a request message to the one peripheral communications stationSTA0 for notifying that the beacon transmission time is to be changed(step S12).

In contrast to this, when the STA0 receives the message from the STA2notifying that the beacon transmission time is to be changed (step S13),as the collision is generated with the beacon of the hidden terminal(the STA1) for its own station (or, the collision is serious), the STA0recognizes that it is difficult for the STA2 to receive the beacon ofthe STA0. Then, the beacon transmission timing of its own station ischanged by setting forward or backward the timer which performs the timemanagement at its own station (step S14).

With this configuration, the transmission time (absolute time) at whichthe STA0 transmits the beacon afterward is changed. As a result, thebeacon transmission times of the STA0 and the STA1 is as shown in FIG.11. That is, the collision frequency of the beacons from the peripheralcommunication stations is decreased, and it is possible to recover fromthe state where the collision is serious.

It should be noted that when the STA2 recognizes the beacon collision, amethod disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application PublicationNo. 2005-151525 and the like can be applied for a determinationregarding to which communication station the beacon transmission timechange request message is to be transmitted.

Also, as the STA2 places the beacon timing information of the respectiveperipheral communications stations STA0 and STA1 in the beacon (see FIG.7), instead of receiving the above-mentioned request message from theSTA2, the adjacent station STA0 analyzes the placement content of thereception beacon from the STA2 and autonomously recognizes that it isdifficult for the STA2 to receive the beacon of the STA0 as the beaconcollision with the hidden terminal STA1 is generated.

In such a case, the STA0 extracts the beacon transmission time and thebeacon transmission interval from the beacon timing information of theSTA1 placed on the reception beacon from the STA2. Then, the STA0executes the processing procedure shown in FIG. 12 on the basis of thefuture beacon transmission times and the beacon transmission intervalsof its own station and the hidden terminal STA1.

The future beacon transmission times of their own stations STA0 and STA1are roughly calculated until the time T1 in future, and the number ofbeacons transmitted from its own station is counted. This value is setas N1 (the time T1 is set as a sufficiently large number so that N1becomes a plural number). Furthermore, the STA0 counts the number ofcollisions with the other station STA1 among these N1 beacons, and thisvalue is set as N2. Then, the STA0 calculates a ratio of the N1 beaconstransmitted by its own station to the number of collisions N2 with thebeacons from the other station. When this ratio is above thepredetermined threshold, the STA0 determines that the beacon of its ownstation is collided with the beacon of the STA1. When the collisionstate is determined, the STA0 changes the beacon transmission timing bysetting forward or backward the timer for performing the time managementat its own station.

With this configuration, the transmission time (absolute time) at whichthe STA0 transmits the beacon afterward is changed. As a result, thebeacon transmission times of the STA0 and the STA1 are as shown in FIG.11. That is, the collision frequency of the beacons from the peripheralcommunication stations is decreased, and it is possible to recover fromthe state where the collision is serious.

In the above description, the case in which the STA0 and the STA1 arethe adjacent station is supposed, but of course, also in a case whereboth the stations are the adjacent stations, the STA0 can calculate thefuture beacon transmission time of the STA1 on the basis of the beaconreception history directly received from the STA1. Similarly to theabove, a rough ratio at which the collisions are generated in future canbe calculated, and further it is possible to activate the operation foravoiding the beacon collisions.

Also, in the above description, the case in which the adjacent stationof the STA0 is only the STA2 is supposed. In a case where a plurality ofadjacent stations exist, the above-mentioned processing is performedsequentially on all the adjacent stations, so that it is possible toautonomously eliminate the beacon collisions at the respective adjacentstations.

The calculation method for determining the “beacon collision at theadjacent station i” will be examined more closely. First, the countvalue N1 calculated in step S2 in the flow chart shown in FIG. 12 isgiven through the following expression.

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 8} & \; \\{{N\; 1} = {{{Count}\left\lbrack {f_{0}(t)} \right\rbrack} + {\sum\limits_{{{STAID}{(j)}} \neq {MySTAID}}^{n_{i} - 1}\;{{Count}\left( \left\lbrack {g_{i,j}(t)} \right\rbrack \right)}}}} & (8)\end{matrix}$

Count [f₀(t)] is the same as shown in the above-mentioned expressions(2) and (3) and denotes the number of the beacon transmission timings ofits own station scheduled from the current time to the upcoming time T1.Also, n_(i) denotes the number of elements in the beacon timinginformation of the adjacent station described in the beacon receivedfrom the adjacent station i.

Then, g_(i,j)(t) is an impulse function in which a value is providedonly at the beacon transmission timing from the current time to theupcoming time T1, which is represented by the following expression.

$\begin{matrix}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 9} & \; \\{{g_{i,j}(t)} = {\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{\infty}\;{{\delta\left( {t - {k \times {BcnInt}_{i,j}} - {t\; 0_{i,j}}} \right)} \times {{Window}(t)}}}} & (9)\end{matrix}$

BcInt_(i,j) denotes a beacon cycle represented by the j-th beacon timinginformation element from the communication station i. Then, t0 _(i,j)denotes a previous beacon reception time represented by the j-th beacontiming information element from the communication station i.

The second term in the right side member of the above-mentionedexpression (8) represents the number of the beacon transmission timingsscheduled from the current time to the future time T1 regarding all theelements except for its own station among the beacon timing informationfrom the communication station i.

Also, N2 calculated in step S3 in the flow chart shown in FIG. 12 (thecount value of the number of collisions with the beacons from the otherstation among the beacons transmitted until the upcoming time T1) isgiven through the following expression.

$\begin{matrix}{\mspace{79mu}{{Numeric}\mspace{14mu}{Expression}\mspace{14mu} 10}} & \; \\{{N\; 2} = {\sum\limits_{{{STAID}{(j)}} \neq {MySTAID}}^{n_{i} - 1}{{Count}\left\lbrack {\left( {{f_{0}(t)} \otimes {{Gate}(t)}} \right) \times \left( {{g_{i,j}(t)} \otimes {{Gate}(t)}} \right)} \right\rbrack}}} & (10)\end{matrix}$

According to the above-mentioned expression (10), N2 is calculated asthe number of the collisions between the upcoming beacon transmissiontiming of its own station and the upcoming beacon transmission timing ofthe reception beacon notified by the adjacent station i (except forthose of its own station).

The probability of the beacon collision in the adjacent station i iscalculated in the above-mentioned manner, and this processing isperformed for the respective adjacent stations. Then, when the beaconcollision probability of any of the adjacent stations exceeds thethreshold, the changing procedure for the beacon transmission timing ofits own station is activated.

Even when the respective communication stations transmit the beacons indifferent cycles, on the basis of the beacon reception time and thebeacon transmission cycles of the respective communication stationsplaced in the reception beacon as the beacon timing information, it ispossible to calculate the beacon transmission time over the future. Whenthe beacon is started to be newly transmitted or the beacon transmissiontime is changed, the communication station calculates the respectivefuture beacon transmission times on the basis of the beacon timinginformation of the peripheral communication station collected throughthe beacons received from the adjacent station and selects a time periodduring which the collision with these beacons is not caused (or thestate where the collision is not serious), so that the beacontransmission time and the beacon transmission cycles of its own stationmay be decided.

The method for the communication station to decide the beacontransmission timing will be described with reference to FIG. 14. In thesame drawing, such a case is supposed that the STA2 newly decides thebeacon transmission timing under an environment where three stationsincluding the STA0, the STA1, and the STA2 exist. It should be notedthat the STA0 and the STA1 are in a relation of being an adjacentstation of the STA2 or an adjacent station of the relevant adjacentstation (2 hops away).

The STA2 can calculate the beacon transmission times of the STA0 and theSTA1 across the future from the beacon timing information placed in thebeacons received from the STA0 or the STA1.

At this time, the beacon transmission times of both the stations STA0and STA1 are supposed to be in a relation shown in the upper stage ofFIG. 14. The STA2 generates this information in its own station andextracts time periods during which no collision is caused with thebeacons transmitted from the peripheral communications stations STA0 andSTA1 as shown in the middle stage of FIG. 14. Then, the STA2 decides thetransmission times and the beacon-transmission cycles so as to transmitthe beacons of its own station during these time slots.

As a result, the STA2 decides the performance of the beacon transmissionat the times and in the cycles shown in the lower stage of FIG. 14. Withthis configuration, the STA2 can transmit the beacon so as not to beoverlapped with the beacon transmission times of the peripheralcommunications stations STA0 and STA1.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A communication apparatus comprising: circuitryconfigured to: receive first beacons from at least one peripheralcommunication station; generate a second beacon on which beacon timinginformation related to a reception time of a first beacon having anindication among the first beacons received from the at least oneperipheral communication station is placed, based on a change inreception state of at least one of the first beacons, wherein thecircuitry places information on the second beacon indicating whether ornot a reception state of a first beacon has changed and wherein thechange in the reception state of the first beacon comprises at least oneof the following: disappearance of a first beacon which has beenperiodically received thus far, starting of reception of a first beaconwhich has not been observed thus far, change in the transmissioninterval of a first beacon which has been received thus far, and changein proximity in reception intervals of first beacon signals receivedfrom different peripheral communication stations; transmit the secondbeacon generated by the circuitry; and control transmission timing ofthe second beacon so as to avoid a collision with the first beaconstransmitted from the at least one peripheral communication station. 2.The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circuitryplaces information on the second beacon indicating whether informationabout all received first beacons is placed on the second beacon.
 3. Thecommunication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in response to arequest from a peripheral communication station more pieces of beacontiming information than the information placed on the second beacon isprovided to the requesting peripheral communication station using ahandshake operation.
 4. The communication apparatus according to claim1, wherein the information indicating whether or not a reception stateof the first beacon is changed is composed of a numeric value, and whena reception state of the first beacon is changed, the numeric value isincreased.
 5. The communication apparatus according to claim 4, whereinwhen the reception state of the first beacon is determined to have beenchanged, and further it is determined that more pieces of first beacontiming information than the information placed on the first beaconshould be obtained, the circuitry controls a handshake operation forobtaining all the beacon timing information from a transmission sourceof the first beacon.
 6. A communication method comprising: receivingfirst beacons from at least one peripheral communication station;generating a second beacon on which beacon timing information related toa reception time of a first beacon having an indication among the firstbeacons from the at least one peripheral communication station isplaced, based on a change in reception state of at least one of thefirst beacons, wherein information is placed on the second beaconindicating whether or not a reception state of a first beacon haschanged and wherein the change in the reception state of the firstbeacon comprises at least one of the following: disappearance of a firstbeacon which has been periodically received thus far, starting ofreception of a first beacon which has not been observed thus far, changein the transmission interval of a first beacon which has been receivedthus far, and change in proximity in reception intervals of first beaconsignals received from different peripheral communication stations;transmitting the second beacon; and controlling transmission timing ofthe second beacon so as to avoid a collision with the first beaconstransmitted from the at least one peripheral communication station.
 7. Acomputer-readable storage device encoded with computer-readableinstructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer tooperate as a communication station under a communication environmentwhere the respective communication stations operating in an autonomousdistributed manner establish a Peer to Peer connection, the instructionscausing the computer to: receive a first beacon from at least oneperipheral communication station; generate a second beacon on whichbeacon timing information related to a reception time of a first beaconhaving an indication among the first beacons from the at least oneperipheral communication station is placed, based on a change inreception state of at least one of the first beacons, whereininformation is placed on the second beacon indicating whether or not areception state of a first beacon has changed and wherein the change inthe reception state of the first beacon comprises at least one of thefollowing: disappearance of a first beacon which has been periodicallyreceived thus far, starting of reception of a first beacon which has notbeen observed thus far, change in the transmission interval of a firstbeacon which has been received thus far, and change in proximity inreception intervals of first beacon signals received from differentperipheral communication stations; transmit the generated second beacon;and control transmission timing of the second beacon so as to avoid acollision with the first beacons transmitted from the at least oneperipheral communication station.